Thursday 22 July
David Cameron this week outlined plans for the new Big Society Bank, and announced the country’s first ‘Big Society communities’ in Sutton, Windsor and Maidenhead, Eden Valley in Cumbria and Liverpool.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Cameron said the Big Society Bank will ensure that all the money from dormant bank accounts made available to England is put to good use for the benefit of society.
Starting with £60m from dormant accounts, the Bank will expand the social investment market place and help to attract extra private sector investment. The Government aims to generate hundreds of millions of pounds for charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to fund social projects across the country, creating opportunities for social action and community involvement.
As a wholesale organisation, the Bank will invest in financial intermediaries in the social investment market, who in turn will increase access to finance for frontline, social organisations. It is expected that £60m will be made available from dormant accounts.
The amount of funds available for distribution will be determined by the number of banks and building societies participating in the scheme, the success of the ongoing campaign to reunite individuals with their assets, and the sums held back for customer reclaim.
The Government’s target is to establish the Bank by April 2011. A key milestone will be the creation of a Reclaim Fund to protect the interests of deposit holders, as required by the Dormant Bank Accounts Act. Co-operative Financial Services are currently in the process of submitting an application to the FSA to perform this role.
The four big society communities will be taking forward a range of ideas, which all come directly from proposals made by the people in those areas. They include
- moving a community centre to a site chosen by the community; building a renewable energy generation project; a community buy out of a local pub; providing community broadband access (Cumbria/Eden Valley)
- transparency of local spending decisions; participatory budgeting for parks budget; delegating budgets to streets; devolving further powers to parishes (Windsor & Maidenhead)
- boosting volunteering at a number of key museums; creating a social enterprise to produce films and content for digital platforms; developing neighbourhood media and cultural activities in poorer areas (Liverpool).
- establishing greater freedom to implement sustainable transport schemes and influence the provision of local public transport; identifying ‘place shaping’ champions who can build good practice in greener living; supporting the creation of a project involving young people that invests in the local community (Sutton)